U-T’s 2012 Persons of the Year

They died defending us all

Marines at Andrews Air Force Base carry the caskets containing the bodies of the four Americans who were killed in the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, in September 2012. / Photo by Jewel Samad • AFP/Getty Images

Marines at Andrews Air Force Base carry the caskets containing the bodies of the four Americans who were killed in the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, in September 2012. / Photo by Jewel Samad • AFP/Getty Images

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Navy SEALs — resourceful, courageous, devoted and disciplined — represent the best qualities of our community and our nation. Whether in high-profile operations like tracking down and killing Osama bin Laden or strategic efforts like seizing and preserving power plants in the opening days of the Iraq War in 2003, Navy SEALs are the silent professionals whose sacrifices protect our values and our nation. It is our privilege that so many of these special forces are trained at the Naval Amphibious Base Coronado.

When something goes horribly wrong — as it did in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11-12 — and SEALs die as a result, it leaves us with a deep sense of remorse and an obligation to honor their sacrifices.

That was our reaction to the deaths of Glen Doherty, 42, of Encinitas, and Tyrone Woods, 41, of Imperial Beach, former SEALs turned CIA contractors who were killed after hours fighting heavily armed terrorists who had already succeeded in killing U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and information officer Sean Smith, who also had roots in San Diego.

It is why U-T San Diego has chosen to honor Doherty and Woods as our Persons of the Year for 2012.

Their deaths came as they defended their fellow Americans at a U.S. building after the main U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi had been attacked and set afire. An official account released by the State Department says they died shortly after 6 a.m. Sept. 12 when three mortar rounds struck the roof of the building, where the men were in defensive positions.

But the story that has been told to the men’s families since soon after that terrible event — coming from both government and unofficial sources — is far more dramatic and wrenching.

On Sept. 11, aware that it was the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Ambassador Stevens held all his scheduled meetings at the fortified compound that housed the U.S. consulate. An uneventful evening came to an abrupt end when dozens of heavily armed men broke through the front gate and began lighting buildings in the compound on fire. Officials notified Washington and called Doherty, Woods and other members of a quick-response team at a U.S. facility a little more than a mile away.

Security agents already at the compound took Stevens and Smith to a safe room inside a residence building in the compound. Attackers managed to get into the building but couldn’t breach the safe room, so they lit the building on fire.

While the quick-response team was still making its way to the consulate, agents pulled Smith — dead from smoke inhalation — out of the residence. Stevens could not be found. His body was later identified at a hospital where he had been taken by good Samaritans.

When Doherty and Young reached the smoky compound, they worked to quickly evacuate the surviving Americans to the second U.S. facility. It was there, early the following morning, that the terrorists launched their second coordinated attack – the one that killed the ex-SEALs.